trick, and served up the flesh of that unclean animal so well disguised, that it passed with Brusquet for venison.

Note XIII., p. 216. — CUCKOO's Nest.

The quarrel in Chapter XII. between the pretended captain and the citizen of London, is taken from a burlesque poem called The Counter Scuffle, that is, the Scuffle in the Prison at Wood street, so called. It is a piece of low humour, which had at the time very considerable vogue. The prisoners, it seems, had fallen into a dispute amongst themselves "which calling was of most repute," and a lawyer put in his claim to be most highly considered. The man of war repelled his pretence with much arrogance.

"Wer't not for us, thou swad,' quoth he,
'Where wouldst thou fay to get a fee?
But to defend such things as thee

The offence is no sooner given than it is caught up by a gallant citizen, a goldsmith, named Ellis.

"Of London city I am free,

And there I first my wife did see,
And for that very cause,' said he,
'I love it.

And he that calls it cuckoo's nest,
Except he say he speaks in jest,
He is a villain and a beast, -

I'll prove it!

For though I am a man of trade,
And free of London city made,
Yet can I use gun, bill, and blade,

In battle.

And citizens, if need require,

Themselves can force the foe retire,

Whatever this low country squire

May prattle.'"

The dispute terminates in the scuffle, which is the subject of the poem. The whole may be found in the second edition of Dryden's Miscellany, 12mo, vol. iii. 1716.

Note XIV., p. 224. — BURBAGE.

Burbage, whom Camden terms another Roscius, was probably the original representative of Richard III., and seems to have been early almost identified with his prototype. Bishop Corbet, in his Iter Boreale, tells us that mine host of Market Bosworth was full of ale and history.

"Hear him, See you yon wood? there Richard lay
With his whole army; look the other way,
And lo, where Richmond, in a field of gorse,
Encamp'd himself in might and all his force.
Upon this hill they met. Why, he could tell

The inch where Richmond stood, where Richard fell;
Besides, what of his knowledge he could say,
He had authentic notice from the play,

Which I might guess by's mustering up the ghosts
And policies not incident to hosts;

But chiefly by that one perspicuous thing,
Where he mistook a player for a king,

For when he would have said, that Richard died,
And call'd, a horse! a horse! he Burbage cried."

RICHARD CORBET's Poems, Edition 1815, p. 193.

EDITOR'S NOTES.

(a) p. xxxviii. "Not a Cock-lane scratch, not one bounce on the drum of Tedworth." The Cock-lane ghost is familiar to readers of Boswell's "Life of Johnson" (1762). It manifested itself by raps, which are said to have been produced by a girl in bed with the aid of a piece of wood. The Drummer of Tedworth, in the house of Mr. Mompesson (1661), is described by Glanvil, in "Saducismus Triumphatus."

(b) p. 26. "The Nor-loch." This sheet of water lay at the foot of the Castle-hill, where the railroad runs now, and on the site of Princes Street Gardens. The Water-of-Leith is the much-polluted but naturally picturesque brook on the west side of Edinburgh.

(c) p. 40. "Lady Trebleplumb." The Editor is acquainted with no earlier use of the word "plumb" for a sum of money than that in Lord Ailesbury's Memoirs, where he is speaking of a date about 1680-1700.

(d) p. 48. "Frank Stewart, the wild Earl of Bothwell." Bothwell made several attempts to secure James's person. After his trial for witchcraft he nearly caught the King and the chancellor in Holyrood, as Roger Ashton writes to Bowes, Dec. 28, 1591. (Tytler, "History of Scotland," ix. 56.) James locked himself up in a turret, and was rescued by the citizens. In 1593 (July 14) the Countess of Athole concealed Bothwell behind the arras in the anteroom of the King's bedchamber. The King awoke, and rushed out with his hose about his heels, and his undergarments in his hands. (Tytler, ix. 89.) This is probably the occasion referred to in the text. James behaved with courage, saying, "I will not live a prisoner and dishonoured." The events were not so dramatic as Richie Moniplies represents them.

(e) p. 62. "When my Lord of Bothwell suppit with her Grace." The King was not unnaturally displeased by this

item in Richie's "sifflication." The Queen's familiarity with Bothwell is undoubted. One little fact tells terribly against her. She came into possession of a quantity of vestments, originally the property of Aberdeen Cathedral. Some of these she had cut up to make a coverlet for the cradle of the infant James. Others she gave to Bothwell, three weeks after he murdered her husband. The story is in the "Inventories of Queen Mary's Jewels" (Bannatyne Club), and speaks ill for her as a churchwoman and a wife.

(ƒ) p. 93. "The Raid of Ruthven." The object of this Raid (1582) was to separate James from his favourites, Lennox and Arran. The King was near Perth; Lennox, at Dalkeith, near Edinburgh; Arran, at Kinneil. Gowrie, Mar, and others caught James at Gowrie's own castle of Ruthven, removed his guard, and held him prisoner. "Better bairns weep than bearded men," said Glammis, when James burst into tears. The Kirk abetted the Raid, and enjoyed a temporary triumph.

(g) p. 159. "The genuine and Roman pronunciation.” King James would here have agreed with his great enemy, Andrew Melville, who, when abroad, attempted to teach a scholar of Greek birth how to pronounce his own language. An approximation to King James's pronunciation of Latin has recently come into use. The King's Homeric quotation in this chapter is not in Homer.

(h) p. 160. "Nippit foot and clippit foot." The fairy tale alluded to is "Rashin Coatie," the native Scotch version of "Cinderella." In the Scotch version there is no fairy godmother, but the heroine is aided by a red calf, a gift of her dead mother's, which magically assists her even after its death. The story is apparently older than the Reformation, for the people go to church on Christmas Day (Yule), a terrible piece of idolatry in Presbyterian eyes. When Rashin Coatie fled from the ball, she left a shoe behind her. The prince vowed he would marry any one who could wear the little shoe. One of Rashin Coatie's sisters managed to get the shoe on, by cutting her heel and toes. She was going to church with the prince, when the birds sang :

Nippit foot and clippit foot,

Beside the prince she rides;
But braw foot and bonny foot
Behind the chimney hides.